“WE had a ten-minute standing ovation during the official screening,” Robbie Tan excitedly told us via text message about the reaction to “Foster Child,” which he produced, after its official screening Friday evening at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes.

“The audience was absolutely moved by ‘Foster Child,’ ” Robbie added. We are back in LA now from Cannes but the ecstatic text messages by the folks behind the Pinoy film, directed by Brillante “Dante” Mendoza, excited us as well.

The producer claimed that the press screening held earlier, on Friday morning, was a success as well: “Many viewers told us that ‘Foster Child’ is a moving film. They were all praises for Cherry Pie (Picache).” Cherry Pie stars in the film along with Eugene Domingo, Jiro Manio, Alwyn Uytingco, Dan Alvaro and Kier Segundo.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

AS we await the reviews of Dante Mendoza’s “Foster Child,” his entry in the non-competition Directors’ Fortnight, here is what he told us about what he hopes the Cannes audiences will see in his film about foster care families who take care of children before they are adopted by foreigners: “The film is unique in its simplicity and truthfulness.”

(Editor’s note: Photo by Ruben V. Nepales)

DANTE MENDOZA’S thoughts on the Cannes film festival as he gets ready to show “Foster Child” in the Directors’ Fortnight (poster of this Cannes sidebar is in the background) on Friday, May 25: “I have always known that Cannes is a very prestigious film festival. It’s every director’s dream to have his work showcased in it. I’m raring to meet the master filmmakers and see their works.”

(Editor’s note: Photo by Ruben V. Nepales)

HERE is a photo of Pinoy filmmaker Dante Mendoza checks out the Cannes beach scene on his first day in the French port city.

Dante is in Cannes, ready to show his film, “Foster Child,” on Friday in the Directors’ Fortnight, a sidebar section of the ongoing Cannes film festival.

Wearing a red shirt and a brown jacket, the Filipino filmmaker, who won a Golden Leopard at the 2005 Locarno (Italy) film festival for “Masahista,” looked relaxed as he settled into a chair at the Noga Hilton’s lobby. He recalled the moment when he first heard the great news that “Foster Child” adds him to the list of Pinoy directors whose works have been shown in the Directors’ Fortnight — the late great Lino Brocka, Mike de Leon and Mario O’Hara: “It was two a.m., a Friday in April when my manager/agent Ferdie Lapuz called me up and said that Jeremy Segay of Cannes’ selection committee told him that ‘Foster Child’ has been chosen to be in the Director’s
Fortnight. I was thrilled no end.”

[Read the rest of this entry »]

MICHAEL MOORE’S much-awaited new documentary, “Sicko,” earned hearty applause during its press screening this Saturday morning in Cannes. The reaction was one of the most favorable so far in this festival.

At the press con afterward, your blogger asked why the controversial filmmaker chose to enter the film out of competition at Cannes. He replied to us that in the spirit of the film, which questions why the US couldn’t implement universal health coverage for Americans, he did not want to adopt the “American attitude of more, more, more!”

He explained that since he won a Palm d’OR in 2004 for “Fahrenheit 9/11,” he did not want to be greedy.

[Read the rest of this entry »]